NYPD Shoots Man With Knife After He Refuses To Drop Weapon

NYPD officers fired shots Sunday afternoon that killed a man they say moved toward them with a large butcher knife inside a Lower East Side apartment building. The deadly encounter took place shortly after 4 p.m. at 126 Ludlow Street. Police were responding to several 911 calls about an assault in progress when the situation escalated.

NYPD Assistant Chief Melissa Eger described what happened during a Sunday evening news conference. She said officers found a trail of blood leading up the staircase inside the building. As they moved upstairs, they met 54-year-old Wei Chan coming down the steps while armed with the weapon.

The incident unfolded quickly. Officers told the man repeatedly to show his hands and drop the knife. He did not comply. Instead, he kept moving forward with the blade in hand. That is when officers opened fire, striking him. Wei Chan was rushed to a local hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

"We have no known criminal history for this individual within our department," Eger told reporters. She added that his file does show a documented mental health history on record with the department.

The violence did not stop at the gunman. Officers also found Wei Chan's 75-year-old father, Cheung Chan, waiting nearby. He suffered a laceration to the head from an injury caused by his son before police arrived. Medical teams took him to the hospital as well. Doctors expect Cheung Chan to survive his wounds.

Even the responding officers faced danger. Police said some of the men who rushed into the building required their own hospital evaluation after the shooting ended. Eger noted their actions serve as a reminder that officers often run toward danger rather than away from it.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the public Sunday evening. He confirmed he had been briefed on the incident right after it happened. He also stated that body-camera footage will be released once the internal investigation wraps up. Every time NYPD officers use their weapons, such an investigation is mandatory by policy.

Mamdani wrote a post on X explaining the steps being taken. The specific details surrounding exactly why the confrontation turned lethal remain under active review by investigators. City leaders are waiting for more information before drawing final conclusions about the night's events.